A Poem For Wednesday

Your Jim Holt post cites Robert Krulwich, asking "which is bigger, your brain or the universe?" It so happens that Emily Dickinson also gave that question a whirl:

The Brain — is wider than the Sky —For — put them side by side —The one the other will containWith ease — and You — beside —

The Brain is deeper than the sea —For — hold them — Blue to Blue —The one the other will absorb —As Sponges — Buckets — do —

The Brain is just the weight of God —For — Heft them — Pound for Pound —And they will differ — if they do —As Syllable from Sound —

(Photo: In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December 1999 servicing mission, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star. This stellar relic, first spied by William Herschel in 1787, is nicknamed the 'Eskimo' Nebula (NGC 2392) because, when viewed through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face surrounded by a fur parka. In this Hubble telescope image, the 'parka' is really a disk of material embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, with their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. By SSPL/Getty Images)